


THE CHOSEN PEEIRA

by jinyoungsmeat



Category: GOT7
Genre: ABO Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Anal Sex, Ass Play, Ass to Mouth, Blonde long hair Yugyeom, Blood Pacts, Bondage, Bondage and Discipline, Break Up, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Explicit Sexual Content, Face-Fucking, First Time Blow Jobs, Imortal Jinyoung, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Omega! Yugyeom, Original Character(s), Praise Kink, Rough Oral Sex, Sad, Sexual Tension, Werewolf Sex, Yugyeom is a boy not a girl, human! Jaebeom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:26:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26607466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jinyoungsmeat/pseuds/jinyoungsmeat
Summary: Women. All children born should be women, Peeiras, pack leaders, and the only remaining lineage of ancient beasts. It was like this for years, until a boy raised with long hair and flowered dresses became a huge gray wolf, with blue eyes and a deafening howl, which brought one of the old ones back to life.
Relationships: Im Jaebum | JB/Kim Yugyeom, Kim Yugyeom/Park Jinyoung, Park Jinyoung & Kim Yugyeom
Comments: 40
Kudos: 44





	1. prologue

Ancient legends say that the first species to exist were a powerful, wild, and dangerous race for humans that would appear millennia after their existence. Many of the ancients believed that the people who hide in the forests actually descend from western men, that their history began in Portugal and Galicia, where an ancient God descended from heaven and with cold hands molded soldiers from tree branches, land, and clay. These soldiers were called animals and the old people described them as irrational beasts, treacherous pieces in a war of giants.

But when the war finally came to an end in the dark sky, the old God, who feared that his new creations — humans — would be devoured by the beasts he had loved so much, decided to descend from heaven and banish them to the ends of the woods. As time passed, humans became barbarians, murders, and devoured the animals created by the same Father who brought them into the universe. However, a fallen man in the darkness, full of evil and contaminated by the ambition of humans, offered the endangered beasts the solution that would transform them into mutants: two legs during the day, four legs during the night.

All they needed to do to accept the pact and become what would guarantee their survival was to give every male child they had to _fall into darkness_ , a blood ritual is done before birth that would perpetuate forever and ever. The race that was previously seen as only wild by humans evolved from a single moment, where an enchantment has confused the mind of a foolish human and a wild beast, giving their lives for the new era of wolves.

So the beasts evolved into what the legends call metamorphosis, beings that can turn into wild wolves in a mere instant — and even though people have forgotten about their existence, or just don't believe it anymore, the forests have been left behind and cities were filled by them.

Portuguese legends called them _Peeiras_ , daughters born of ancient wolves who perpetuate the female lineage copulating with humans to maintain tradition and honor the pact they have — women who commanded and ran through the woods at night, waiting in the darkness for that the last man of the original lineage died and go finally free.

 _Women_. All children born should be women, Peeiras, pack leaders, and the only remaining lineage of ancient beasts. It was like this for years, until a boy raised with long hair and flowered dresses became a huge gray wolf, with blue eyes and a deafening howl, which brought one of the old ones back to life.


	2. in the heart of the forest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I ask you to allow my kids to live a long life and to be healthy, old parents…” the woman whispered making the sign, turning to see the family photo they had taken a few months ago. Her eyes focused on the twins for a long moment. “And that nothing bad happens after this omen of death. Protect my kids”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I have three stories being updated and two of them are still being written, I will start dividing publication days:
> 
> PUNISHMENT will be updated every Tuesday.  
> BLOODSPORT will be updated every Wednesday.  
> THE CHOSEN PEEIRA will be updated during the writing of the chapters and corrections.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this new book. I'm working hard for him!

The woman screamed again, feeling her insides trying to devour the child who should not be born under the moonlight, but dies during a storm before he even came into the world. The blood that ran between her legs was black as the curse that had locked them into a life of extinction by a pact that had cost all the boys of their race — something inside her knew she would lose the baby when her body tried to expel him to the world, but she needed to try. She had promised the last elder that she would try to honor the ancient people, that she would bring a man child and prove that everyone was wrong, that the falling into darkness would not cause the destruction of the universe and that everyone would die.

She needed to honor the promise she had made, even if it cost her life and her entire family line — she was the last daughter of seven women, all her children were girls and faithful to the new breeding lines. When she found out she was expecting her seventh baby, she was startled to discover that the baby in her belly was a four-month-old boy, healthy and unexpected.

It was a miracle that she decided to go to a human doctor, if she had followed the advice of her sister and gone to the pack doctor, the potions that devoured the fetus and fulfilled the duty they had with falling into the shadows would have been condemned — she would have lost her seventh son to a violent storm and a destiny for generations.

“You must be strong!” the man, Lyra's human lover, gritted his teeth, pushing the woman's belly. He had heard something break inside her, but he had promised that he would not stop until the child was breathing in his lover's arms. “The moon will be at the top of the sky in a few moments, push, Lyra, push. You need to push!”

Lyra, who had been named after an ancient fairy, who prophesied of her birth even before her mother existed, screamed into the sky with all the strength she still has inside her, pushing with an almost canine and wild howl. Suddenly the man stopped forcing, she stopped screaming and the whole forest succumbed in silence before Lyra burst into tears and cursed the ancient and fallen God.

The woman clung to her lover tightly, burying her face without being able to look at the child between her legs. She had failed with the ancient people, who had once run through the woods in wolf form, with the ancestors of her grandparents, who had been extinguished against the will of the people by a decision that led them to live in hiding. among humans being doomed to repetition.

Lyra had failed.

════ ☽☾ ════

The children's laughter echoed through the woods like a lullaby, lulled by the sounds of the wings of the younger fairies and plunged into the rivers as they gently disappeared through the tops of the trees — it was the festival of the sacred forest. Those who still lived near the forest dressed in long flowered dresses and ran barefoot among the grass, hunting small animals and feeling the spirits of the ancient people who gave them the grace of existence.

Lyra, who had ten daughters and five young granddaughters, used to tell the family that they were blessed on the day of the forest, that they should put their knees on the cold earth and thank the ancestor that had existed long before humans, like giant toothed beasts sharp. The younger children, Bada and Boo, didn’t care about what their older sisters thought, they put their knees as their mother said it and thank their people.

Unlike the four-year-old twins, Lyra's oldest daughters didn’t care about the customs of a people they never met, they believed in the power of blood and land, in the offering of his unborn male children to the falling into the shadows, in violence hunting’s and the purification bath of the vows with that started the New Era.

Lyra knelt with her twins in the small water fountain, clasped her hands against her forehead, and bent down on the floor, thanking nature and the ancients for the life she had and for the children she will bring to the world in the new era — thanked the nymphs for the healing of their granddaughter, Sarang, who miraculously didn’t die like the twenty-three new pack children. And for being alive to take care of her family.

The fifty-nine-year-old woman felt the approach on her left side and moved her head, surprised to see Gyeom and Minji kneeling to honor the ancestors as the old customs says. The old woman smiled from ear to ear, feeling happy to know that the two had followed her at the festival that year instead of going on the hunt with her sisters and nieces. The girl with long brown hair turned her head enough to show her mother a smile before praying as she had been taught when she was very young.

“Can we bathe in the fountain now?” Bada, the oldest twin, asked, sinking her fingers into the cool earth. The mother always bathed in the source of the river when prayers for the ancients ended.

“Only you. The others must stay here”.

“But I wanted to enter in the river too!” Boo, who was very talented with her hands for her young age, complained about being followed by Minji. Lyra denied it again. “Bada can always do anything, I can never do anything. Every year is the same thing!”

“This is your fourth year, Boo” Minji rolled her eyes. “No need to worry, there will still be many years to bathe in the spring-like mom and Bada. I've been waiting for fifteen years”.

“And will keep waiting until you’re ready”.

“But mother… Bada is only four years old” Gyeom joined the sisters, making a drawing of wet earth on Bada's broad forehead. She had to bathe with the ancient signs, to remind the God who had created them that they were gracious despite their animalistic conditions. The girl with long blond hair sighed. “I am almost eighteen and I never even got close to the river. So how can she, who is much younger than us, be ready to enter?”

“ You guys are not ready” Lyra repeated, taking Bada by the hand. She gave them a menacing look. “Don't you dare follow us, don't go hunting around like crazy, the damage from your sisters is enough”.

“Can't we hunt even a rabbit?” Minji asked disagreed. The woman thought for a long minute. She didn’t care about hunting habits, they were descended from wolves and it was common to chase smaller animals. Finally, she nodded. “Oh really?”

“Just don't get out of the woods” Lyra reminded them. It was a full moon night, although they couldn’t become wolves anymore, they didn’t usually act on the full moon effect. “I don't want any human watching you run with the symbols of our people on your skin. There are still those who believe”.

“Let's not get out of the woods!” Minji shouted, grabbing Gyeom's hand and lifting Boo off the floor with one arm. They used to get stronger on the day of the festival, it was a reminder of the fallen into the darkness of how powerful their people had been in the past. “What are we going to hunt this year, girls? A little fox? A deer?”

Gyeom smiled showing big teeth, brown eyes became tiny crescent moons on the pretty face. She liked the forest festival, it was the only day of the year that she could run with the sisters without worrying about studies, rituals, learning spells. The most boring part of their tasks was the green witchcraft classes because the vast majority of them were born without any magical properties, in the other they ended up dying in the early years due to the confluence between the wolf that was trapped in their souls and the essence of their daughters from the woods.

Gyeom had grown up hearing stories about how the first wolves had transformed, how the God had ignored them and the people were attracted by falling into the shadows, how they mated with humans and gave life to the children of the new age — heard stories about the nymphs, daughters of the woods, who one day became great as people and mated with the last men of the original lineage, mixing their blood with beasts.

 _Peeira_. It was what the daughters of the new age were called, women with wolf blood, humans, and daughters of the woods. Leaders of the pack, the protectors of a people that no longer existed — the men were almost all extinct, those that existed were children of the ancient lineage and were about to die. Women, workers, they’re like the last connections of old people that could transform into wolves.

“Deer!” Boo shouted, pointing at the animal in the trees. The two older sisters looked at each other with a smile and ran, pushing and colliding as they passed the four-year-old girl. “Wait for me. I saw him!”

Gyeom and Minji laughed, outwitting their sister as they chased the deer that was trying to escape and probably return to their herd safely. Minji, fifteen years old, threw himself on the cub with open arms, hitting the icy earth when the animal managed to get out of its boat. Laughing at her sister's failure, Gyeom moved the eyes towards the animal's movement and ran, watching Bada turn around and cling to one of the trees before trying to climb.

“It's not worth using skills!” Gyeom shouted, pulling the girl by the foot, and dropping her on the grass. The flowers in the girl's brown hair were dead. She grunted and got up running. “If you climb a tree, I swear I will knock them all down, Bada”.

“I am not to blame if you are ordinary!”

Being ordinary meant having no skills. A large part of the women, despite not having the same magical power as the daughters of the forest, were born with a special ability — Bada could climb anything, as well as half the village. Boo could stay underwater for a long time before needing to breathe in the oxygen that kept her heart beating. Woori, one of the older sisters, could feel the weather changing before the storms came.

The others were common.

Gyeom grunted angrily, running faster when she saw Minji pass out of the corner of the eyes while listening to Bada's insults. The flowered dress was all dirty and torn at the hem, her feet were full of bruises and her face was sweaty from the way they ran — she could be ordinary, but she knew how to move through the forest as if she knew it and felt her in every part of her body. She was the first to grab the deer by the neck and drop it on the wet grass.

The sisters screamed unhappily, watching Gyeom struggle to hold the deer against the ground while laughing at the expressions of defeat. Ordinary, but smart enough to win whenever they tried to minimize her to their half-human blood that ran in her veins.

The girl's brown eyes had a wild glow, the loud breath made the scene even more confused and her sisters opened their eyes wide when the girl, in a flash of rage, broke the deer's neck with her hands as if it wasn't something really difficult to do. Bada clung to Minji's leg, looking at Gyeom from behind her sister's arm — she wanted her mother.

“Gyeom, you killed him…”

The smile on the girl's dirty, the sweaty face disappeared, her brown eyes returning to that docile and calm image that the sisters used to see. Gyeom released the animal with a start, shaking her head as she felt the heart speed up in her chest. It was the forest festival, killing was extremely forbidden until the full moon was in the sky.

“Am I going to be punished?” Gyeom asked scared, removing the dirty hair from the wet face. She stood up. “Is mom going to turn me upside down on the rock tree? Somebody answers me!”

“You killed it…” Bada repeated obvious. “I think she will turn you upside down on the stone tree, _unnie_. If I were you, I wouldn't eat at the banquet today because the night will be bad”.

“Why is the night going to be bad?” the three turned around in alarm, hearing the tired voice of Na-rae, the oldest of them all. Gyeom moved away from the animal and the other two flinched. Narae was a faithful daughter of the new age, believed in the power of the women of the village, and didn’t care about the extinction of the race because she wished that her future generations could live free from the blood of the wolf. She was radical about the festival's rituals. “What is it? Who killed this animal?”

“Gyeom!” Bada shouted pointing to her sister. “We were hunting, as a joke, and she broke his neck with her hands”;

Narae moved her eyes from her to her sister.

“With the hands? Did she kill with her hands?” the woman asked taking a step towards the animal, seeing the flabby neck. No one could break so many bones using only their hands. Narae looked at her sister angrily. “Did you kill a sacred animal, on the day of the forest, with your own hands Gyeom? Do you know what it means?”

“That it will be placed upside down on the stone tree…”

“Yes Bada, she really will.’ Narae croaked, pulling her sister by the arm by force. “And you will have a serious conversation with the old woman. You’ll regret breaking such a rule, Gyeom. You'll regret it”.

The girl tried to free herself from her sister's grip but was dragged through the forest without even being heard. When they reached the clearing, Gyeom managed a run and go to her mother, explaining what had happened as quickly as she could — the woman had always freed the youngest daughters, she had done this with Minji, with Goeul, and even with Narae. She would probably do something to help Gyeom. At least that's what the girl thought until she was tied by her left foot.

She stayed upside down all night, watching some children running, feeling dizzy and wanting to vomit — occasionally, they took her off the tree so that the girl wouldn’t end up dying from the blood flow down to her brain, but just to put it on her back in punishment. When dawn came and people started to leave their tents, Gyeom felt her body hit the ground and vomited all the yellow liquid from her stomach.

“Yeah, put it out my baby.” Lyra laughed hitting her daughter on the back. She had managed to talk to the old woman, they wouldn’t take the girl to trial for killing an animal, but the punishment of the stone tree was almost like a rite of passage for everyone. “You will be fine, you are a descendant of wolves, such nonsense will not kill you”.

“I feel like I spent the night dying and coming back to life” she coughed, wiping her mouth and taking the bottle of aromatic water that her mother brought. It was how they healed themselves from that kind of punishment, drank a type of herbal potion, and any problems caused by the punishment were cured over the days. “I never want to go through this again, mother”.

Lyra smiled, rubbing the wide scar on the left side of the girl's neck, remembering how she had been punished in the past for drowning a rabbit. Gyeom was seven years old and the old woman had opened a line there, as they used to do to punish the rebellious children.

The woman was supposed to talk to the girl about what had happened in the forest, but she chose to ignore it until it was a quieter moment. They still needed to celebrate the old woman's life before everyone returned to their homes in the city — thirteen hours later, almost at sunset, Lyra said goodbye to everyone and sent the daughters who lived farther away with some friends, in addition to having kissed each of her granddaughters and given a blessing of longevity.

When the youngest arrived home, they bowed to the totem of the first man in the Kim family, who spawned wolves, who spawned metamorphosis, who spawned mestizos, who mixed with humans and became women. After making the family sign, dragging the index finger from the left shoulder to the right, each went to the bedroom.

Lyra bowed one last time.

“I ask you to allow my kids to live a long life and to be healthy, old parents…” the woman whispered making the sign, turning to see the family photo they had taken a few months ago. Her eyes focused on the twins for a long moment. “And that nothing bad happens after this omen of death. Protect my kids”.


	3. the birth of a beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wolf, hearing the woman's voice, tilted his spine down, raised his tail, snouted, and howled so loudly that they were all deaf. The giant's head turned to a dark spot in the woods, so he tapped his paw on the cold grass and ran, making the ground shake.

“Congratulations asshole!” Lim, one of the oldest said, waking up the girl. She opened the curtains and let the light in. It was Gyeom's birthday, the girl was turning eighteen and that means that all the sisters would be present. “Come on sunshine, time to wake up”.

The girl sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes. She had gone to sleep late last night, she and her mother had spent a few hours talking and drinking wine with Minji after putting the twins to sleep, so she was exhausted and had a headache.

Lim sat on the bed, taking the gift she had left on the dresser and handed it to the girl with a wide smile. Gyeom opened the package with agility, the smile fading from her face the moment she understood Lim’s gift. They were really expensive earrings.

“They're emeralds” the woman explained, taking one of the earrings out of the box. She smiled at the girl, pulling her blond hair back to put on the earring. The accessory weight bothered the youngest. “You always said you wanted emeralds when you were little, I thought you would like”.

“I liked it…”

Lim nodded, analyzing her sister's expression. She knew that Gyeom was strange, but it probably had to do with the old trace of wolf blood in her system, because all of those had that phase when they finally became adults — Gyeom was turning eighteen, it was normal that she was strange. She would act like a lunatic for some time, it was the thing of the ancient people, the last traces of the lineage of the wolves.

“Go take a shower” Lim said, drawing the girl's attention, who seemed to be rambling on in his own thoughts. “I will prepare some herbs with mom, you will feel good soon”.

Gyeom nodded, standing up only when Lim left and left her alone. The girl removed her earring, put it in the box, and threw it in the corner, frustratedly, getting up and taking off her clothes. When she stopped in front of the big mirror, she sighed deeply and stared at herself for a long moment — everything in her body seemed to be different now. She knew it had to do with the wolf phase, that like the sisters she would have a bad week, but that she would be fine soon. Luckily the peeiras weren’t like the original wolves, if they were, this would be the day when their body would go through the transformation fever and eventually discover if it was a beta, omega, or alpha wolf.

But they were not like the ancients, no one in that pack had blood from the originals. They were mestizos, a more fragile and unprotected race, which mated with humans to keep the people alive while making the blood of future generations totally normal. Human.

The girl squeezed her eyes tight and turned to the shower, turning on the water pressure at the hottest temperature. The skin on her arms, shoulders, and back turned red, but it wasn't like she was feeling anything. She took longer than usual in the bath.

“Finally!” Lyra shouted seeing Gyeom appear at the edge of the kitchen door with an irritated expression. “What happened now?”

“I can't explain…” Gyeom replied, biting the corner of her lips. She wanted to sit at the table and talk about what she was feeling, but she had nine sisters and six of them had been through it, it would be silly to debate the same subject. “I'm just not well. It must be the blood of the ancestors, right? It's always the same for anyone who turns eighteen”.

“If you know that, why you keep that sulky face?” Lyra asked, wiping her hands on the dishtowel. She smiled, holding Gyeom pretty face in her hands, kissing her cheeks eighteen times as she had with her other puppies at that age. “May our God bless your life and keep you in this universe for more years”.

Gyeom nodded, smiling at the white-haired woman.

“May the God who rules us ensure my existence”.

Lyra smiled back, ruffling her long, almost blond hair before heading back to the stove. She was cooking for about twenty people and didn't want to delay even one dish, because the day was going to be long and she wanted to enjoy every moment and every birth ritual. The aunts were drunk when Lyra sat down after setting the table and saying a few words.

In the late afternoon, the twins were the only souls behaved in the family's backyard. They ran barefoot, screamed, laughed, and toasted the moon mother, who was slowly appearing in the sky to complete the transition of the child who had been the fruit of ancient love, blessed by the old God and bathed in the waters that had covered every pack bodies in the past.

Despite the joy, before the moon was really at the top of the sky, Lyra said goodbye to all the women in her family and pulled her daughters to the consecration bonfire in the middle of the forest. They used to conclude the ritual only with each other, with howls and laughter drenched in wine and unification of the old with the new. The twins sat on a log, keeping silent as they listened to Byeol, the blue-haired, rebellious sister, singing an ancient song in her beautiful voice. Gyeom smiled, nestling in her mother's lap, feeling her fingers sink into the earth.

Kim Lyra had ten puppies. Na-rae, Woo-ri, Lim, Byeol, Dahye, Goeul, Gyeom, Minji, Bada, and Boo. Her bloodline had been bred with human men. Woo-ri gives birth to Ah-ri, a five-year-old little girl. Na-rae was the mother of Han-Wool, a seventeen-year-old girl who would soon be undergoing the birth ritual. Dahye, who as only 22 years was the youngest mother among them, had a three-year-old girl named Jin-Joo. Lim, the most humorous sister, had a two-year-old girl named Sarang, while Byeol had brought Taeyang into existence.

It was a large family, with strong women and healthy children, full of life and bright futures. Ten babies from a bloodline that was gradually mixing with the blood of humans and moving away from the bonds they had with wolves — when Lyra died, Na-rae would start to command the family and, as she wished, she would guide her sisters to the extinction of the bonds that united them with the beasts created by the old God.

“Maybe the twins follow the traditions…” Gyeom whispered, feeling her mother's caress stop. She knew what Lyra thought about the new age kids, but she couldn't go against Na-rae when her mother died. Not only because she was one of the youngest, but because she would end up being killed if she dared to go against the pack's future mother. “They will probably live in the woods like the old ones and will honor mother earth and the moon goddess”.

Lyra smiled tenderly, stroking Gyeom's cold cheek. But before she could say what she was thinking or thank her cub for surviving that day, she was interrupted by the scary scream that escaped her throat — Gyeom moved away from her mother quickly, pressing her hands over her ears as she screamed.

“What's it?” Dahye asked startled, holding her daughter tightly in her arms. They had never heard anyone scream so loudly. She got up from where she was sitting. “What does she have? Why are you screaming?”

The girl screamed again, louder, grave.

“Mother?” Na-rae called. “What is it?”

Lyra stood up too, grabbing the twins on her lap and telling Minji to move away from her sister. They all stopped where they were, watching the mother as her sister writhed on the floor and begged someone to make the noise in her ears stop — no one was hearing anything. There wasn’t even a noise other than the flames burning and the night. None of them were hearing anything, but Gyeom appeared to be suffering from some noise inside his head.

“Mother, do something!” Minji shouted, watching his sister squirm on the floor. “She's in pain. What is happening?”

“Make it stop, mom!” Gyeom yelled. “Make it stop for God's sake!”

“Minji, come here…” Lyra called hurriedly, pushing the girls away from her body. “Get your sisters.” the twins tried to hold on to their mother, but the woman needed to help Gyeom. “Nobody moves, understand? I don't want to hear anyone's voice, be quiet everyone”.

Minji's eyes widened and she pressed her hands over the twins' mouths, crouching away from where Gyeom's body writhed in the grass. They all obeyed, closing their mouths, and forcing their bodies to stand still while watching the scene in horror. They knew that the birth transition was painful, it had to do with the old transformations, but they had never seen anything like that. Nobody ever felt pain or screamed like that for saying goodbye to their young self.

Lyra kept her distance from Gyeom.

“I need you to maintain control and trust me, okay?” the old woman said to the others. Gyeom let go of her ears and grabbed the earth, arching her body in the air while screaming. Everyone could hear the frightening sound of bones breaking. “Our wolves’ bloodline is almost disappearing! The blood of the ancients is getting weaker and women are forgetting their origins day by day now…”

Gyeom clapped her hands on the wet earth, begging the moon to make the pain go away. Her whole body was on fire — she had been feeling strange all day, her skin temperature wasn’t normal, her stomach was strange, her teeth hurt, her eyes hurt, her nails were sensitive and her bones were making strange noises, but she didn't think she would ever feel more than the annoying tingling that reminded her of something like physical pain.

Her mother had told her that one day there would come a time when they would have to tell the family what had happened in the past, but she didn’t expect the secret to be broken by such desperation that it seemed to be burning and breaking her body from the inside out. Yelled grabbed the material of the dress, pulling the hem and tearing the entire greeting.

“Humans are erasing our existence without doing anything because a single wolf decided to make a blood pact with a fallen man in the darkness, a demon!” Narae wanted to correct her mother but was interrupted by her stern look. The woman clenched her teeth. “He sold our souls, our children, and warriors for an illusion of greatness, girls. Our lives aren’t our…” Lyra laughed, surprised by every sound that came out of Gyeom's mouth. She had never seen it up close, never imagined that she would witness that kind of ascent, but it was frighteningly beautiful and unbelievable. “They said that being human we would have more power to come and go in the universe, that the God who created us would love his creations once again. But it was a lie. It was just a new way of trapping us at the bottom of the dark forest and extinguishing us forever!”

Lim's eyes widened. She wasn't sure what it meant, but she had been suspicious of her mother for some time and had the feeling that the family would end up in trouble because of the old woman and her old thoughts about the return of the great wolves.

Gyeom's body turned, she was on all fours and all her length went rigid. The sisters had stopped breathing, the mother held out her hand in fear of what would happen if she interrupted the process in any way.

Her eyes were watery.

“I had no idea…” Lyra swallowed. “I just wanted a son to prove that the pact was a complete lie and that we were killing our babies for nothing. I didn't know he would be… like this”.

The information hit them all like a ball.

Minji's eyes widened, the twins grabbed their sister's neck and hid. Lim looked towards the house, where her daughter slept with three of her nieces — if she ran more than Gyeom, she could get the baby and save the other children. Lyra turned as soon as she heard the movement, making Gyeom growl ferociously between _his_ teeth.

“If you run…” the woman whispered cautiously, without taking her eyes from the writhing body. “You will end up killing us all”.

“I don’t understand mother. Gyeom…” Narae licked her lips. The wide, tear-filled eyes made Woori and Dahye want to cry too because they felt desperate about the situation. The grunts that came out of the body's throat stretched out over her hands and knees were terrifying, they were daughters of the new age and had never witnessed anything so wild. They had grown up among women. “She has like the ancients?”

“I never imagined he could be”.

“ _He_?” Lim repeated startled. “How could you?”

“How could I not?” Lyra smiled happily, watching the way the spine of his sweat-soaked body contorted, stretched, and expanded. Was happening. The fever that the stories told, the metamorphosis of the human to the animal. “I had to prove that they were wrong, that we descend from the giants and that we are the strongest race. We no longer need to hide and kill our boys anymore!”

Gyeom grabbed the skin of his face, pulling with thin nails and screaming in pain as the entire chin line extended, turning into a long greeting for a huge, toothy mouth. The boy's body grew violently, with grotesque sounds and screams that gradually became howling. Lyra's eyes widened, rising and moving away from the animal that seemed to be over ten feet tall — the legends were true, they were wild and graceful giants. The wolf's pale fur was smeared with blood, but it was still beautiful and shiny.

“Nobody moves!” she shouted again, seeing the wolf stagger on its paws and wiggle its muzzle, staining everyone's blood. The old woman approached a little, trying to look directly into the blue eyes of the giant wolf. “Your father was right Yugyeom-ah, you are so beautiful”.

The wolf, hearing the woman's voice, tilted his spine down, raised his tail, snouted, and howled so loudly that they were all deaf. The giant's head turned to a dark spot in the woods, so he tapped his paw on the cold grass and ran, making the ground shake.

Lyra screamed for her son, but it was too late. Gyeom had run towards what had caught his attention after his howl echoed through the trees — the women in the Kim family had no idea, but Gyeom had just awakened something that should have been dead.


	4. the first wolf among the daughters of the new age

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Minji-ah, tell your sisters that they are crazy!” Lyra sobbed, still looking for something to cling to. She needed to convince Narae that killing Yugyeom was crazy. “Tell them that your brother is not the blame one, I am! He loves them more than anything in the universe, please”.
> 
> “Mom…” Minji shouted being held by Lim. “Mother!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to apologize for the grammatical errors, I don't have much time for correction, but I didn't want to leave you so long without updating. Hope you like it. I promise to fix the mistakes as soon as I have some time left!

The sound of vomiting echoed through the cave.

Gyeom felt his stomachache as if there was a big wound inside him when he vomited. His teeth were sensitive, his eyes were burning, his nails were dirty, and it seemed so fucking uncomfortable to be in that boy’s body — he remembered what had happened the last night. Unlike what his mother said, Gyeom had transformed himself into a huge wolf-like his ancestors. He had run through the woods, devoured smaller animals, and lost himself a few times before he heard _that voice_.

“The first changes are like that…” the voice made the boy, who had survived eighteen years in the pack pretending to be a girl, turn around and notice his nakedness. “You'll get used to it”.

He took a step back when the man behind the shadow came into his view. He was a boy as young as Gyeom was — the new boy suddenly felt calm, as if seeing him with his own eyes would calm his confused brain. The dark-haired boy smiled analyzing the boy in front of him.

“Do you feel it?” he asked, passing something sharp over his palm. Gyeom's skin prickled completely, the sensation in his hand made him gasp in surprise. They laughed at the same time as if they were feeling the same. “I thought I would never feel that”.

“What is it?” Gyeom asked licking his lips. “I felt what you did in your hand as if you had done to me. Is weird but good”.

“It's called transmigration*”.

Gyeom looked up with surprise in his eyes.

“No. It's impossible…” the boy joined his eyebrows. “The ancient people were decimated, the last of the bloodline is thousands of years old and is dying because he cannot maintain the cycle.” he thought, shaking his head until something occurred to him. “Doesn't this happen only with original wolves that are destined?” he asked, closing his hand. “My mother told me that I am an anomaly, a type of error because she never took the potions of earth to give the fetus to the fallen in the darkness. I cannot be connected to someone, transmigration does not work on me”.

The boy smiled, holding Gyeom's wrist tightly. His brown eyes rolled behind his head and when they came back, they were yellow and Gyeom felt his body burn with something very similar to what he felt when his mother let him act like a boy when no one was looking — it was pleasure. An absurd pleasure.

“ _I see you_ …” the voice echoed velvety in his ears, making Gyeom feel his body burning and his breathing heavy. It was like an echo from the back of the boy's mind. “I can see you now, Kim Yugyeom, the boy born from a seventh daughter”.

Gyeom's eyes rolled back and he managed to catch a glimpse of his life before that very moment — he saw his mother's smile, the sisters growing up, the twins running. He saw himself in the mirror, the reflection of a boy hidden behind an act that had been his prison.

He saw the wolf's paws digging into the ground, pulling out heavy, heavy stones until he finally saw him, the boy who held his wrist and smiled as if he had known him all his life. He saw him smile from inside the hole in the earth, from the deep, dark darkness.

Then the sensation passed as quickly as it had started.

“Gray giant wolf…” the dark-haired boy smiled showing his sharp fangs. The eyes, now yellow, fixed on Gyeom. “The seventh son of a seventh daughter, born on the full moon of Venus and bathed in the spring that runs up to me” he asked in a deep voice, approaching. The wide, warm hands wrapped around Gyeom's waist, pressing him hard against his body. “The chosen one. An omega”.

════ ☽☾ ════

Lyra's eldest daughter, Na-rae, screamed kicking the desk for what seemed like a long time to the four years twins. They were huddled in a corner, their hands on their ears were numb and their hearts were racing after they heard the future matriarch of Kim’s family call the council and demand that their mother be taken to clarify the 'atrocity' she had brought to the world.

Lyra was happy to be taken. Despite having young daughters to raise, she knew it was the right thing to do and was happy to see her eldest daughter make the right decision for the family — if Narae had the courage to report her own mother to the council, it meant she would do anything to protect her younger sisters when the woman died. Besides, she had nothing else to do in that house anymore, she had accomplished her task of keeping her son alive until his eighteenth birthday and knew that Yugyeom would be able to protect himself now that he could be himself among all the human women in the pack that dominated them.

“You could at least have heard her!” Lim snarled holding her daughter tightly in her arms. She didn’t agree with her mother, she was one of the daughters of the new age, but she refused to accept that Shakespearean tragedy where the older sister murdered the matriarch because of divergent thought. “She's our mother, Narae. They will kill her the instant she passes through the council gates”.

“So be it!” Narae shouted turning to her sister, teeth sawed and her eyes red with anger. The woman felt betrayed, humiliated, offended. She had donated her entire life to learn the tribe's teachings, to honor the family and protect them. She studied what she didn’t want, married one of the chosen ones because her mother had told her it was right, had a daughter when she wanted freedom, and lived every moment in the pack to guarantee her right to be the successor and be important. Narae’s life resumes to make the Kim lineage memorable and Lyra had spit on it. Fucked everything up. “It's what a traitor deserves. Death. Mom kept a monster alive for years, Lim. She made us believe that freak was our sister and brought shame on this family”.

“Narae!” Dahye denied incredulously. “I know that mother broke the rules, no man should be born, but don't talk like that. She brought you into the world too, she is your matriarch to the last breath of life, and you owe her respect for God's sake…” the woman shook her knee, nervous about the situation. She just wanted to pick up her daughter and leave, go home, and pretend that they wouldn't be punished for that thing running in the woods on four legs. “Just shut up, please. The council has already been called, they should arrive at any time, we don't need to do anything else”.

“I could do something…” Narae ground her teeth. Lyra smiled at her oldest daughter. The woman understood her words and wishes at that moment, if she were in the woman’s place she would also hate the person whose boldness had humiliated her family, so she couldn't feel sad to see Narae want her head. “Tell me, mother… If that thing hadn't turned into an animal” she asked what everyone really wanted to know. “Would you have told the truth to us?”

“I can't tell you with complete sincerity, because my desire to protect your brother has always been much greater than the desire to tell you the truth about what he is, Narae…” Lyra replied, hearing her daughters snort and react differently. “And each one of you would have done and thought the same because you are mothers and must protect your puppies”.

“They aren’t puppies!” Byeol murmured. “Our daughters have human blood, mother. Is different. This ‘puppy' should be born in this generation and you know that. We’re one step closer to being the strongest race!”

“You were never strong, you stupid…” Minji whispered softly because part of her preferred the old traditions and her mother's teachings. The twins were young, but Gyeom was right when he said that they would probably live in the forest and greet the moon mother because they didn't want to be part of a lineage that murdered babies because of a silly old pact. “Every year we’re born weaker, powerless. How many have died in the past three years because of the mixed-blood?” she denied with her head, frustrated. “They said it was impossible to bring a boy into the world, that death was certain for anyone who tried, but the mother kept Gyeom alive for eighteen years without anything happening to any of us. Doesn't that mean something?”

“I can't believe what you're talking about!” Narae laughed wryly, widening her eyes. “Are we weak? If we’re weak, what does that make you a spoiled brat? You are as much a daughter of the new age as we are, your father was an asshole who smelled like alcohol…” the echo of the slap run through the room making Sarang, Lim's daughter, cry. Lyra accepted Narae's harsh words but would never allow her to speak to any of her human lovers like that because everyone had given her something important while they were alive. “It's not like I lied, right mother?”

“Enough!” Goeul, whose patience reminded them of their grandfather, sighed, rubbing her temples. “Can we stop this stupid fight for now? The shit has already been done, Narae. Unfortunately, our mother broke the rules and we have no idea how it will affect us” she shrugged. The woman sits, tired. “And you've fucked up by calling the council so let's shut up and wait. Please”.

“It's not because you usually stick your tongue in the ass that everyone will do the same, Goeul-ya…” Woori whispered rubbing the soft cheeks of Ahri, her daughter who would probably be killed because of her grandmother's sins. “You don't understand anything because you don’t have anyone, but we have daughters. Mom protected that freak for eighteen years but who's going to protect us now? Narae did the right thing. She deserves death because of her actions”.

Lyra nodded with a wide, gentle smile on her lips.

“At least my son will live a good life”.

“No if this depends on me…” they all turned at the same time, towards the wide-open door in the office. The house was open because they were waiting, but they were surprised to see the old lady Mo in person. Except for Lyra and the younger members of the Kim family, they all knelt. The woman with long platinum hair entered the room, her hands behind her back and analytical eyes searched every corner behind what had been communicated to the council that morning. “Where's the freak?”

“That thing ran to the woods, your greatness…” Narae made a point of answering, her head bowed and heart-racing showed fear. She knew that her entire family could be killed if she wasn’t careful about the words she used. “We tried to go after it, but it was too late. That's why we called the council because we know that you’re the only ones who can solve this unwanted problem”.

“My son is not an unwanted problem, Narae” Lyra croaked impatiently. “I tried to have a boy for years before any of you came to this damned half-breed world. My seventh son, born in the light of Venus's moon and bathed on the banks of the river of the ancients as a promise of protection is not a problem. He is the solution to this illusion that you are safe being controlled by a demon who hides in the shadows for fear of revealing himself!”

“Blasphemy!” the old woman shouted, her eyes widening. The woman was surrounded by her security guards in seconds. “The fallen in the shadows was our savior. When you miserable God turned his back on us, he gave us the chance to start over as a new and independent people”.

“Independent? You kill your sons to honor a blood pact!” Lyra replied furiously. The woman's mother had been a pack ladder too, she believed in tradition and wanted more daughters of the new age to open up to the teachings of the ancients, but she had been killed by the same woman who wanted to challenge Lyra's words with her stupid vision of false salvation and glory. “Your new God is a demon and your daughters are dying day after day because they are getting weak, and the day will come when only humans will walk the world and we will be really extinct, Lady Mo. The new era isn’t the pack solution, it is our death”.

The old woman didn’t have to raise her hand or give the order, the slap that one of the women gave against the left side of Lyra's face was definitely one of the things that Lady Mo had wanted to do in some time. She was tired of the Kim family's problems, of how the matriarch tried to impel the youngest daughters into old and offensive traditions for the fallen in the shadows — she waited anxiously for a reason to kill her and now she would do the same as she had done with Ann, Lyra's mother, in the past. Lady Mo would cut off the woman's head as punishment.

“Kim Lyra” another security said authoritarian. “The council accuses you of breaking the new rules. For bringing a son into the world, you will be condemned and sentenced to death by beheading. The farewell ceremony from the world of the living will take place in two days so that you can reconnect with your ancestors before departure…” the woman approached, helping Lyra, who had her hands tied by order of Narae, to get up. “As for the monster you hid in your home, it will be hunted by the warriors of the tribe and will be killed in the God Sun’s day”.

The woman's body immediately stopped.

“You aren’t going to kill my son…” Lyra felt her body tremble at the thought. She refused from the world with that possible threat against her little puppy. “He isn’t to blame for my sins. I broke the rules, I humiliated the pack. I’m the blame one, so don’t kill him!”

“He's a monster, mother” Narae gritted her teeth. “It will be killed and thrown to the wild animals of the forest at the first opportunity”.

The Lady Mo motioned for her bodyguards to take Lyra to the car. She struggled, yelled at her daughters to hear the madness they were talking about, after all they had lived eighteen years with Gyeom and they loved him more than anything in the universe — Narae had been thrilled to see her brother for the first time at home, after five long days of labor in the city. Nothing could change the union that existed between them.

“Narae!” Lyra shouted, clinging to the doorframe. “He's your little brother. Do you remember how you taught him to ride a bike and were sad when he got hurt?” she felt her eyes sting. He accepted her death, but not her son's. He wasn’t to blame. “Lim, you used to tell bedtime stories whenever he had nightmares. Woori, how many times did your brother say he loves you? He loved you all girls, please…”

Woori opened and closed her mouth without knowing what to say, she looked at Narae, but all she found was an empty, cold face. She couldn't go against her older sister's decisions, no matter how much their mother’s words had caught her off guard about Gyeom's little memory, while everyone still believed that the creature was a smiling girl with long blond hair, Woori couldn’t disrespect the new matriarch of the family. The woman looked away and clenched her jaw.

“Mommy…” Minji cried down the stairs while she’s mother was dragged brutally out. “I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry”.

“Minji-ah, tell your sisters that they are crazy!” Lyra sobbed, still looking for something to cling to. She needed to convince Narae that killing Yugyeom was crazy. “Tell them that your brother is not the blame one, I am! He loves them more than anything in the universe, please”.

“Mom…” Minji shouted being held by Lim. “Mother!”


	5. the big evil gray wolf

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It's my sister” Yugyeom suddenly came to himself, pushing Jinyoung away from him. He swallowed and screamed, forcing the tingling sensation to take over his body again. “Something is wrong”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!

“Omega…?” Yugyeom swallowed, nodding his head as he took a long step back. It was impossible. He grew up hearing his mother say that his existence was an anomaly, that they should be grateful that the world had let him survive for so long, but that they shouldn't wait for many years to live. He would die simply because he was a boy instead of a girl, so he wouldn’t be a wolf at all. Much less an omega. “You must be mistaken, sir. I already said, my life is a mistake. At that time the council already knows about my existence, my older sister was one of the daughters of the new age and she believes in the extinction of the old blood, so I am going to die soon”.

“Die?” the white-haired boy laughed incredulously. _This boy couldn't be serious. Right?_ He thought to himself, analyzing Yugyeom confused and frightened expression. “Nothing will hurt you, let alone kill you while I'm alive and be beside you Kim Yugyeom…” he said approaching again, holding the omega hands between the long fingers. The sharp nail tore a long line in the boy's palm, causing him to groan in pain. “Look. See what happens and stop saying that you will die when you couldn’t”.

The wound on Yugyeom's dirty palm closed slowly, leaving only a thin trail of blood behind. The boy's eyes widened, he gasped in disbelief and pulled his hand away to see it more closely. _Impossible_. He thought, terrified. _It's impossible_. He repeated it mentally, shaking his head and getting caught in his own saliva.

“How?” Yugyeom felt his stomachache. “How is it…”

“Possible?” the other asked with a gentle smile on his face. He leaned down a little because the youngest was with his head down and staring at his hand soiled with dirt and blood. “I already said it, it's transmigration, Yugyeom. It is an age-old feature that makes destined wolves able to share certain abilities. Don't you understand yet?”

“And I already said that’s impossible!”

“Your mother is Kim Lyra, Ann's daughter…” the young man said in his velvet voice, his yellow eyes searching the depth of Yugyeom's essence as he uttered the words that would make him believes. “There was a promise that one of them would bring a son into the new world. Your grandma was killed before she gets a boy, your mom lost some kids for the night before she got you” he snarled, grabbing Kim Yugyeom’s fist again. “She offered you to the goddess Venus, mother nature and the great goddess of the moon, but it was in my river that she first bathed you on the day of your birth and it was how transmigration gave me you, omega. This is how you can turn into a giant wolf because I am Park Jinyoung, the last of the first lineage of wolves and the blood from your body flows inside me…” he brought his other hand to Yugyeom's marked neck. “As mine runs inside you the day you born until now”.

The ringing in Yugyeom's ears made him bend over and scream in pain as he completely remembered the night before. He had heard that velvet voice in his ears as he ran in the shape of an animal, had chased the sound all night, and when he found the cave, he dug with his big gray paws until he finally saw him in his darkness-covered prison, buried under meters of earth and stones. He remembered how his body contorted and returned to human form, how he felt safe and let the unknown man bite his neck for some reason he didn’t know — at that moment Yugyeom remembered why he finally felt complete, because, as in ancient legends, he had been marked by a wolf. An alpha.

One of the children of the first lineage.

“ _Mommy…_ ” Yugyeom's light brown eyes took on a bluish color and he moved his body upward, looking for the sound that echoed from his head in the cave. Jinyoung's steady hand kept him in place when his legs tried to turn him around. The omega looked at the one who healed to claim him and growled showing his teeth. “ _Mother!”_

“It's my sister” Yugyeom suddenly came to himself, pushing Jinyoung away from him. He swallowed and screamed, forcing the tingling sensation to take over his body again. “Something is wrong”.

Jinyoung felt a breath of air ruffled his hair and lift the earth when the gray wolf grew up hitting the rocks and ran out of the cave, howling as if to say goodbye to him forever. The man laughed out loud, walking towards the sunlight — it was the first time he felt the heat of that immense star in millennia. His whole body softened with the sensation that, after an eternity, he could leave the cave without fear of dying. He heard Yugyeom's howl and laughed, licking his lips before throwing himself off the mountain and landing among the trees in his old wolf form. Jinyoung ran towards the smell of _his_ omega.

════ ☽☾ ════

There were a lot of quick things, but that moment had come and gone so suddenly that no one could explain what had really happened. The security of Lady Mo was trying to drag Lyra into the car while the woman begged for mercy for her son's life when an immense wolf came out of the woods and, as if he had calculated everything down to the last detail, landed in his bare human form among everyone. Yugyeom pushed one of the women who grabbed his mother and turned to hit the other when he heard the Kim family matriarch scream his name.

The boy's blue eyes faded to light brown.

“Yugyeom…” Lyra smiled with tears in her eyes, running towards her son. She held the boy by the face and looked for any injuries. He had been gone all night. “Are you alright my love?”

“Yes. What's going on…?” he whispered to his mother, staring at the women in his family who looked at him as if he were a freak. When he was younger, he discovered that he would be hated by everyone for the simple fact of being born a man. That the sisters he loves the most would turn their backs on him and that he would be alone in the universe, but he didn’t imagine that it would hurt so much to see them frightened by his presence that way. “She denounced you, didn't she? They will kill us because of me…”

“No. No. What nonsense. Don't say such blunder!” Lyra denied, even if it was obvious. “I'll convince them to leave you alone. You weren’t the one to be blamed for what I did, it was my choice. You deserve to live”.

“Mom…”

“This animal deserves to live?’ they heard Narae shout angrily, coming down the stairs even though her fear was visible in her wide eyes. Lim tried to hold her sister, but it was too late. “You can't really believe that mother. This freak doesn’t deserve to live, this is a plague, a blasphemy with the nightfall and I demand that the council make his execution memorable, so that no other troubled soul will try to bring a plague back to this blessed world!”

“Noona…” Yugyeom frowned. He always liked Narae, kept thinking about what it would be like to tell his older sister and he was afraid, but he pretended that the woman would put him on his lap and stroke his hair. His heart sank. “I figured you were going to hate me, but not that much. I'm sorry for being born”.

Narae's eyes widened.

“Ignore your sister!” Lyra shouted pulling her son's face. She refused to see him regret his life. “You deserved this world, Yugyeom. You’re a good boy, you deserved to be alive and should never apologize for that my love. Your sisters are silly, they don't know what they say”.

“But I know!” Lady Mo said irritably. She couldn't believe they were really being fooled by that freak for all those years. He had kissed the cheeks of a little girl with blond hair, thinking she would be a good wife in the future. “Take them both right now. I will not wait for the trial, we will behead them in public tonight. Kim Lyra will die with her beast”.

“Yes!” Narae nodded firmly, making Yugyeom stare at her angrily. He didn't mind hearing his sister's harsh words, but he couldn't admit to hearing her speak that way when it came to the mother. She had given life to every woman in that family and deserved respect. “Kill this woman in public, Lady Mo, show the pack what happens to traitors”.

“I'll rip your tongue out, filthy snake!” Yugyeom croaked away from his mother, grabbing his sister by the neck without realizing what he was doing. The blue eyes were furious. “How dare you ask for the death of your own mother, Narae? Is your desire to be a matriarch so big that you give her life for this?”

“Gyeom!” Minji shouted. They had grown up together. The girl was only three years younger, but they’re friends. They shared secrets, laughed together, and had similar dreams. “Narae unnie is upset with mother, don't listen to what she says. I know this is a difficult situation, but please, you need to control yourself and let go, Gyeom”.

The boy tightened his sister's neck even tighter.

“Yugyeom!” Minji shouted again, this time calling attention to the name that the mother had said was the boy's baptism. He tightened his jaw. “We can fix this situation together, please”.

“It's a lie…” they heard an unknown voice emerge from the woods. Yugyeom's hair stood on end. “She's lying, Yugyeom”.

“Man!” Lady Mo whispered in surprise. No human crossed the forest without being chosen to mate. The old lady hid behind one of her security guards. “What are you waiting for? Take this intruder out of my forest right now!”

“Your forest?” the man laughed wryly, analyzing the women around him. He had never seen so many in one place. His naked body felt the cool breeze of the day and his skin was grateful to receive the blessing of the gods to feel again. “This forest is not yours. It belongs to Mother Nature, Gaia, and not to a stupid and insolent woman like you.” Jinyoung said approaching Yugyeom. He wiped a wide finger across the boy's shoulder. Lyra raised her eyebrows, confused. “These must be your sisters, right?”

“Not anymore…” Yugyeom finally answered someone. He kept Narae's body in the air for what seemed like forever until he heard Jinyoung's whisper telling him to leave the woman. “Maybe I should break the neck of this filthy snake first”.

“Yugyeom!” Lyra shouted angrily. “She is your older sister, and you must respect her even if her choices aren’t the ones you want to follow, dear. She will be the matriarch of the family when I die and you-”

“You don't have to die” Yugyeom ignored Jinyoung's and his mother's words. He squeezed some more. “I can kill them all and ends everything here. No one else needs to know and we can leave this miserable place, mother. I just need to tighten it up a little bit…”

The crash of a gunshot echoed through the woods, causing the birds to flee away and Lyra, whose face paled, fell to her knees with tears in her eyes and a loud cry of dread. The younger daughters ran into the house, Minji cringed where he was. Narae's body fell to the floor while the woman coughed violently and vomited a yellow liquid.

Kim Yugyeom put his hand on the wound.

He turned around slowly, incarnate of the woman who had pulled the trigger and then, staring at Jinyoung's calm countenance at his side while his whole family looked terrified. Lim handed her daughter into Woori's arms and ran towards her brother, pressing the wound place with trembling hands while saying things that the boy couldn't understand for real — Jinyoung pulled the woman around the waist, taking her off the ground, leaving the free path for the omega. The boy with long blond hair and pale skin ran towards the woman, crushing her body against the body of the black car. Everyone's eyes widened and they were speechless when he turned quickly and grabbed the other two, breaking their necks.

“The injury…” Lady Mo stupidly drew the boy's attention to herself. He showed his teeth, the fangs were visibly bigger. Yugyeom's blue eyes scared her. “Healed”.

Jinyoung smiled broadly, watching his omega lean closer to the woman, enough to make her even more terrified of her possible death. However, Yugyeom laughed out loud, despite having his hands around the old woman's neck, he had other plans for her.

“ _Run, run away, little sheep_ …” he said an old lullaby that Narae sang for everyone when they were younger. He shifted his gaze to the woman on the grass. It was a warning to everyone who got in his way. “Before the big evil wolf devours you”.

Yugyeom pushed the old woman's body to the floor, licking his red lips before laughing and going to the mother, releasing the woman's hands and helping her to get up — Lyra didn't understand how her son could be healed from a gunshot injury. It was as if nothing had happened and his abdomen has not been pierced by a projectile.

“Oh. Lady Mo?” Yugyeom catches the woman's attention again, helping his mother to climb the stairs of the house. They stopped. “You better run fast and let the other sheep know while you have time because the bad wolf is going to put his mother to rest in safety and…” he smiled open wide. “Then he'll hunt the poor sheep. One by one until no one is left”.


	6. two wolves in the village and all are in danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We are the change of time, the new gods of the world and we will show you how much blood the sacred land can absorb”.

When Kim Lyra was a child, she heard her grandparents tell the stories of the ancient wolves and how the tribe was unified, how the moon's power dominated their bodies and turned them into a giant, powerful beasts. She heard tales and asked them to become real again, that the time of the ancient God shone again, and children could run free in their real forms.

She wished so hard that when she grew up, she dedicated her life to fulfilling the promise her mother had failed to fulfill: _having a son to bring the ancient wolves back_. She dedicated her life and was devoted to the wolf mother and her ancient customs until her last moment.

“Are you really okay?” Lyra whimpered rubbing her fingers where the shots had hit Yugyeom. The boy smiled with tight lips, nodding without even understanding how he could be alive after being shot twice. She swallowed. “Oh my dear boy, I was so scared when you disappeared last night. Where have you been?”

Yugyeom remembered the man he had met in the cave when he woke up that day, the black-haired man who had followed him to his village and helped to save his mother. The man who was standing a few meters away, looking at every corner of the house and everything on the wall as if he didn't understand how it could all be real.

“It's a long story.” that was all he managed to say because he didn't know exactly how to explain that he had met a stranger who swore to be an alpha like the ancient wolves. Part of him doesn’t believe in Jinyoung, but the other part, the part that still felt the presence of the monster inside his stomach, had the slight feeling that his life was incredibly intertwined with the life of that stranger with beautiful eyes. “One that must be told at another time, now we have to worry about what we are going to do with the council”.

“Do you still dare to think of doing anything against the council after you hurt lady Mo and brought an unknown man into our village?” Narae croaked to her feet. She was still shaken by the way her brother had taken her off the floor by the throat but was required by law to intervene. Narae was the eldest daughter, she would be the next _mother_ and needed to act for the benefit of the family. “Don’t be stupid…”

She said between her teeth.

“You have to go, freak!”

Her eyes were full of anger, her disgusted expression made Yugyeom's skin prickle because he grew up loving his sisters with all his heart. Part of the boy wanted to beg for forgiveness, to tell Narae that he wasn’t to blame for being born in the wrong body and that he was sorry for everything he had done. But the other part, the one who was wild and wanted to live freely, refused to accept the older sister with the matriarch.

“You and that filthy human need to go!”

_Jinyoung._

He said he was an ancient wolf, one of the last of the first generation and that he could turn into a wolf. He also said that Yugyeom's life belonged to him and that he would do anything to keep him safe because they were _one_ — the wound had healed, the way it had happened in the cave and Yugyeom knew, somehow, that it had to do with him.

“When did the world become like this?” the stranger asked making Narae grind her teeth. “When did my blood stop running in your veins, young lady?” he joined his eyebrows. “Where are the wolves?” Jinyoung took a step towards Lyra's younger daughters, who ran up to her mother and hid behind her long legs. “My smell is in them, but…” the man pondered for a moment. He knew that he had been imprisoned for millennia, but he didn’t understand why he didn’t feel his existence within those women who claimed to be daughters of the ancient gods and cried out for power. “What happened to the Wakea* line blood?”

Lyra tightened her fingers around Yugyeom's wrist.

“Wakea?” she repeated with fear. The older daughters, who still remembered their mother's stories, opened their eyes wide because they had never seen an outside man know that old name. “The great wolf”.

Jinyoung looked at the woman with irritated eyes:

“My mother.” he answers angrily. “Where are my mother’s wolves in this village? What did you, monsters, do to our people?” he shook his head with contempt when he realized what that unbearable smell meant. He looks at them. “When did you start sharing the bed with humans?”

Lim and Byeol looked confused:

“How do you know about our people?” Lim asked apprehensively, shaking his daughter, Taeyang, soft hand. She swallowed before continuing: “Who are you and why were you with…” she moved her eyes towards Gyeom. Yugyeom. “Him. Why were you with him?”

He moved so fast that there was not even time to process what was happening until they heard Taeyang cry. Jinyoung had taken the girl by the arm, she was suspended in the air as if she were a rag doll and was screaming for her mother, who was too stunned to be able to act long enough.

“Half human.” Jinyoung confirmed when sniffing the girl. He glared at the women in that room. “All of you have human blood running through your veins…” he felt Yugyeom's gaze on him and turned to him: “When did it happen?” Jinyoung asked again, this time hugging Taeyang's body tightly. The girl coughed and kicked, but no one moved because the situation seemed too dangerous. “What happened while I was lost?”

That was when Lyra understood.

The way he moved, the way he looked at everyone around him and seemed too glorious to be a mere human. She understood that the stories were not legends, that that man did not know La loba because of the myths, but because she was part of the story.

She stepped out behind her son and stood in front of the man with wide eyes, and boldly touched her soft, cold cheeks as if she were touching the most sacred thing in the entire universe. Jinyoung loosened his arm around Taeyang and looked directly at Lyra, who smiled broadly as if he had found all the answers in the universe.

“You are one of the first” the woman whispered in a choked voice. She looks at Yugyeom and back to Jinyoung. “You’re one of the children of the ancient God…” Jinyoung released the girl, who ran to her mother in despair while the scary man nodded to the kid’s grandmother. Lyra laughed, pressing her hands to her lips and her heart pounded in her chest. “My mom was right”.

“When did you become that?”

“Millennia ago…” the woman hurriedly replied, even hearing her daughter retort about not giving information to strangers. That's because they didn't understand their mother's wisdom and how much she knew about the people themselves. “The ancient God walked through our land and devastated all that remained because our former mother made a pact with an angel fallen in the darkness”.

Jinyoung clenched his jaw tightly.

His whole body was hot like he was on fire and he wanted to rip someone's head off for that atrocity — his people, the one he loved and devoted his existence to had betrayed his parents.

“The fallen in the shadows” Yugyeom replied when he felt the man's emotions become unpredictable. He felt the sisters' curious eyes on him, but said: “He promised that if each woman gave her child before birth, our race would survive as a hybrid”.

“Abominations!” Jinyoung grunted showing clear and scary eyes, which caused the women to move away and the children to run. “ _It_ turned my people into rot. It's disgusting”.

“How dare you call our race an abomination when you walk through this blessed land?” Narae stamped her foot, clenching her fists tightly. She had blood in her eyes, like a true warrior, but for Jinyoung was too much for her. “That thing,” she said, pointing at her brother. “It is a mistake of nature, just like you. Our people serve the new God-”

Yugyeom grabbed his brother by the jaw, gritting his teeth when he realized that it was not his intention, but Jinyoung's. He was probably using what he called _transmigration_ to boost his feelings on the boy’s body like that — he tried to resist, but when he realized he was pressing Narae against the wall again.

“Yugyeom!”

“When your ancestor's creator came down to this land, it was just a filthy and deserted place” Yugyeom said in a velvet voice. “He brought life back to this planet, raised the wolves, and protected each of his children before you betrayed this devotion with your filthy desires…” the boy clenched his teeth, turning to Jinyoung, who wrinkled his nose and raised the eyebrow. “It was the wolves who betrayed the love you were given, it was you who annihilated our bloodline by lying with humans”.

“It was the only way out!” Lyra said to Jinyoung, begging for Narae's life. She looks miserable. “The fallen in the shadows-”

“You stole lives!” Jinyoung shouted at the woman, causing Yugyeom to release his older sister and growl at him. The man smiled in surprise, because, although he was still weak, he didn’t understand how the boy could have come out of the effect of transmigration just like that. He looks at the woman again: “Your new people stole lives and still dare to act as if they are right by what they did…” he looks to Narae. “You still dare to ignore your brother”.

“What happened was a mistake!” Lyra licked her lips, brushing some hair out of her face. “My girls were born in the new era, they don't understand. No one understands now, but everything will be resolved now that you are back, my lord”.

Jinyoung looked at the woman with a smile on his face.

That was what he wanted.

Things go back to the way they were before.

He wanted Yugyeom to come together and create a world where the ancient tradition was respected, and everyone knew where the power came from the ancient God and his pure lineage.

“Let's start with that woman” the man turned to Yugyeom, who clenched his fists. “The old lady. That old woman has the power now, so let's take it and raise the order of the wolves”.

“You can't do that…” Lim whispered, startled. She looked at her mother with despair on her pale face. “Be against Lady Mo is stupid, they’ll start a civil war, mother. We would be destroyed!”

Jinyoung laughed.

“You still don't understand?” he asked, licking his lips, spreading his arms as if he clearly showed. “I am the first of the first, son of Wakea, born on the darkest day and bathed in the waters of Mother Earth, my lost kid…” Jinyoung showed his sharp eyes and fangs to every woman of that house. “I am the beginning and the end”.

Yugyeom felt the skin prickle and asked:

“We are the change of time, the new gods of the world and we will show you how much blood the sacred land can absorb”.


	7. a wolf lost within itself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I lived eighteen years of lies” he whispered with a sarcastic smile, look at them. “Because you were killing my bloodline and, despite being stupid, I'm still trying to get attached to that girl I pretended to be because at least she was loved. You weren’t afraid. You just don’t want me”.

Blood.

Yugyeom had never seen so much blood and was sure that a few weeks ago he would have been sick because of the smell and the number of bodies that had been left behind during their attack — he had killed people with his sharp fangs and long bottles because something in his head whispered to follow Jinyoung's dark voice.

Blood. Bodies. Deaths.

Yugyeom had been part of a massacre, the council was beheaded in the garden of the immense palace they lived in — and even the children Narae had tried to save — because there wasn’t even a chance for them to survive. Jinyoung was the omen of death that would kill everyone.

“Yugyeom?” the youngest blinked in a daze, lifting his head and turning towards the voice. “Are you okay?”

The boy hesitated because he didn't know where to start. Part of him felt terrible about what had happened and wanted to go back in time, to prevent himself from making that mistake, but the other part felt that they had done what was necessary to free the next generation from the demanding customs of the council and the lady Mo. The wild part that existed within him was at peace with the bloodshed.

“We did what was right” Jinyoung replied as if he could hear Yugyeom's thoughts. The boy nodded, turning to finish cleaning his dirt-soaked hands. “Young people will grow up in unity now that their false God’s has been wiped out”.

 _Exterminated_. That was probably the right word.

They had killed so many people — there were so many bodies.

“We could have done it differently…” Yugyeom sighed squeezing his fingers tightly. “My mother could have convinced them that it was time to change things for us. We could have avoided that”.

“But until when?” Jinyoung asked in a serious tone, too cold. Yugyeom regretted saying that at the time. “Do you really believe they would have let it go even if they handed over the power to me? Yugyeom, those women were preaching a false culture, staining the names of the gods and the ancients for a horrible sin”.

“The fallen in the shadows helped the ancient civilizations, Jinyoung”.

“You killed babies for that!” the man shouted again because that was the fifth time that they got into that subject. Yugyeom had been born in a different time, where humans and wolves had intermingled and created a different lineage. Where a dark pact ran through their veins. “How many died until you born, Yugyeom? Huh? How many?”

“I…” Yugyeom tightened his fingers around the marble. He didn’t know. The boy who had been raised as a 'girl' was part of the fifth generation. Before him, many other babies had been murdered by their mothers because the fallen in the shadows want them. “I still think we could have done it another way. They would have heard you, an original”.

But Jinyoung knew more. He knew those were the words of a dreamy boy, who wanted to live freely and not feel guilty about being the only one to survive. Deep down he knew that Yugyeom would see the meaning of what they had done over time because he would realize that he deserved to live and that he was better than everyone in that village.

Jinyoung approached the boy, his black eyes looked like two chasms despite his lips were smiling and he, unlike any other in that village, knew what he wanted: the elder wanted Yugyeom to see the beauty of what they were doing and look forward to the future.

“The war is over” he whispered holding the boy's hands between his. Yugyeom pursed his lips. “What happened is already past and we will raise our people, Yugyeom. We are going to bring wolves back to this land and everything will be forgotten by them”.

Forgotten, but not forgiven. They had terrorized the village, threatened everyone, and vowed to cut their necks if anyone tried to change what had been done — they were no better than the council with its sharp claws and furry monsters.

“I need to see my mom.” Yugyeom said, moving away from Jinyoung cautiously. The man looked at him as if questioning the truth behind those words. “Now that everyone knows about me, and after what happened, she needs my support”.

════ ☽☾ ════

“I don’t believe that, even after what happened, you still have the strength to come shopping, mother…” when Kim Yugyeom decided to leave Park Jinyoung to escape the madness that had become his life for a few hours, he didn’t imagine that his mother would drag him to the city with the twins. “We should be in the village-”

“What good would it be to be in the village, Gyeom-ah?” Lyra asked with a concerned, cautious look. She knew that things would change when she decided to have Yugyeom against the will of the clan, but she didn’t expect her son to become ‘heir’ to a legacy full of blood. “He is a deity, dear, gods know what is best for their children and Jinyoung must know what he is doing”.

Yugyeom stopped.

“What if he doesn't know?” the boy asked. Yugyeom had just turned 18, he didn't want to be on the side of a murderer just because he was born a man. “What if he is making a mistake and all those deaths were in vain, mother? He’s a killer!”

Lyra considered for a moment. She could put more worries on her son's head because she was also afraid that everything had happened too quickly, but she couldn't do that because she was part of being a wolf's mother to accept nature and help them.

“Jinyoung is the son of our eternal mother, Yugyeom” Lyra forced herself to smile. She looked at her youngest daughters. “He’s the last of a great race and he knows what he is doing for the future of our people”.

“Our people…” he looked away because he wasn’t part of Lyra's ‘people’ anymore. Yugyeom was different, the son of the last man of the wolf lines and a bastard in some way. “What if what he wants to do isn’t the best for our family?” his eyes searched for his sisters, who were running among the people as if they hadn’t seen dead people. “What if he hurts us, mother? What will happen to us them?”

Lyra smiled. She knew that Jinyoung wouldn’t do that.

“The day will come when you understand why that man isn’t a threat to our family, Yugyeom.” Lyra said as if she knew some secret, which she probably knew because her devotion to the ancient gods made her a wise woman. “Don't worry about us, just do what you believe is right”.

Yugyeom didn’t understand where so much confidence in a stranger came from, but he didn’t have enough time to process his mother's words and reply because Bada screamed scandalously and they ran:

“Why did you push her?” Yugyeom grunted taking his sister in his arms while Lyra talked to Boo. “What did you say?”

“Jinyoung oppa said that we shouldn't let anyone talk about what we can or cannot do because we are part of the royal family now”.

Yugyeom looked at his mother as if to say ‘see that? He's already destroying our family’, but he didn't say anything because they were in a public place and all he wanted to do was take his sisters back to the village and forget about that stupid incident — he put Bada in the cart and headed for the counter, where, to his surprise, the boy with long black hair was working. His heart froze.

“No need to be nervous” Lyra whispered touching Yugyeom's arm so that he went towards the cashier. “People shouldn't remember us”.

“Good afternoon!” the cashier smiled as soon as she placed her first purchases on the conveyor. The boy picked up the code reader and turned to the one for the first package. “Will you want bags?”

“No, thank you.” Yugyeom whispered taking the rest of the cart, placing everything on the mat. The boy moved his head towards him as if his answer had caught his attention. He tried to look natural: “I need a cigarette too, please”.

“What?” the boy and Lyra asked at the same time. The woman drew her eyebrows together as if she didn't understand why her son had asked for a box of cigarettes. “You don't smoke, sweetheart”.

Yugyeom opened an embarrassing smile.

“It's for Lim!” he lied again. The sister had stopped smoking five years ago and everyone knew it. Lyra looked at the attendant and then at her son when she understood why she was nervous. She laughed. “Mom…”

“Yeah! Of course…” the woman bit her lip, shaking her head as she got out of the way with the twins. “I forgot she asked for one…” she tried not to laugh. “Cigarette wallet”.

Yugyeom felt like a complete idiot.

“That’s funny” the boy at the counter kept his eyes on Lyra as he registered his purchases. “You look familiar.” he said turning to Yugyeom again. The youngest opened his eyes wide with fear. “I'm sorry to say that, but I always see you coming with the twins and your other daughter…” he smiled at Lyra. “The one with…” the boy frowned as he looked at the boy's hair in front of him. It was the same hair, it was just stuck in a very weird and disheveled way. “Blond hair. You look just like her”.

“Twins!” Lyra replied, causing the two to break the look they were exchanging. Yugyeom nodded with terror on his face. He would not have thought of a better answer. “They are twins”.

“Oh!” the boy nodded. “Wow. That’s… woah!”

“We’re twins too!” Boo shouted waving her, pointing to her and Bada. Her other half. “But I am more beautiful than her”.

“You are not!” the two started fighting. “No. You're ugly, Boo”.

“Kids…!” Yugyeom whispered with an embarrassed smile, taking the credit card out of his wallet. He looked at the name engraved on the material and squeezed his fingers tightly. “Can you pay, mom?”

Lyra understood. His stuff was still in Gyeom’s name. Girl.

“She’s fine? Your sister…” the cashier asked as he typed the total into the machine and handed it to the woman. Yugyeom had a confused expression on his face. “Don't get me wrong, but I always pay attention to our customers and your sister has always been so polite to me”.

Lyra wondered when her son had interacted with that boy because she was almost sure that Yugyeom would never leave her side when they decided to shop in the city — the boy felt his stomachache and, for some reason, almost growled out of control.

“I haven't seen her here in a while”.

“She died”.

Silence.

Yugyeom's heart was pounding in his throat and he wanted to stick his head in a hole because he didn't know where that stupid idea of saying that his other version had died came from.

“I’m sorry to know that” the boy whispered. Yugyeom nodded. “I hope God comfort your hearts, mrs.” he said, looking at Lyra with an interesting kind of sympathy. “And I hope you are well…”

“What?”

“People say that twins tend to suffer more when one of them dies so soon…” the boy licked his lips. “Because of the bond, you know?”

Yugyeom wanted to smile.

He didn’t know that this boy had really paid attention to all the times they were in that supermarket or when he, pathetically, tried to bring up the subject without his mother seeing that he was interacting with humans. But he was happy to know that he had been noticed and that someone was sorry that that part of him had died.

“Thanks”.

Lyra put the bags in the cart and asked the twins to walk out.

“My name is Jaebeom” the boy said as soon as Yugyeom turned to leave and let the next person go shopping. They looked at each other for a moment until the other said: “I never introduced myself to her. I only knew her name was Gyeom because I heard your mother call her…”

He had really paid attention.

“Her name was Gyeowool”.

“ _Winter_.” Jaebeom, the dark-haired attendant on the shoulders, who had a beautiful smile, a pierced mouth, and a gentle look asked thoughtfully. He was probably trying to be polite because of the idea that she ‘died’. “It is a beautiful name”.

Yugyeom nodded.

“Honey?” Lyra called him. “We need to go now”.

“Have a good night…” he said politely to the boy. “Jaebeom-ssi”.

“I still don't know-”

“Yugyeom.” he turned too fast, too soon. His heartbeat faster in his chest and a strange feeling made his body shiver. Jaebeom smiled when he heard, before leaving, his full name aloud: “I'm Kim Yugyeom. It was a pleasure to meet you, Jaebeom-ssi”.

════ ☽☾ ════

Yugyeom felt ridiculous in that dark suit as if that person in front of the mirror wasn’t him and — although he convinced Jinyoung that his hair did not need a cut — he felt as if he was trying to deceive everyone with that ridiculous act.

“Dear?” Lyra knocked on the door. “Oh my God, you look beautiful!”

“Really?” the woman nodded with a wide smile, hugging her son from behind and looking at him in the reflection. “I feel ridiculous”.

“What? Of course not!”

“It's ridiculous that I have to pretend to be someone else, again”.

“What are you talking about?”

“Jinyoung…” Yugyeom turned to his mother. “This stupid dinner with the village people to what? To show us to everyone? Tell them he killed lady Mo and her guards? This is stupid and you know that”.

“He has his reasons”.

“He wants to exterminate the new era daughters!” Yugyeom grunted sitting on the wide bed. This was his new home, the council castle, the room of a member they had killed in the past week. “Jinyoung wants to control them and, in the fucking end, he’ll kill us too”.

“He can’t” Lyra squeezed her fingers. Yugyeom croaked. “And if he kills everyone, what's the problem with that? We killed thousands of children, Yugyeom, children of his lineage. His bloodline”.

“And because of that, do we have to watch him murder everyone without doing anything about it?” the boy snorted. “I don't know if you understand, but we kill people. I killed people because he told me it was the right thing to do, mom. Mrs. Mo-”

“You threatened her, Yugyeom. Not that day in front of our house, but when you born. Every step you took, she could have killed you if I hadn't hidden you”.

He knew that. Of course, he knew.

Mrs. Mo always made her thoughts clear, ‘Gyeom’ suffered for futile reasons like being unable to get a husband, like getting married was the sole responsibility of a woman. She was a crazy woman.

But Yugyeom couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t crossed the line.

He got up, impatient with the conversation, and left the room without saying another word because he didn't want to fight with his mother after all they had been through — the only person he could blame was himself, his mother was faithful and loyal to the ancients and nothing would change that. No matter how much Yugyeom killed, as long as it was in the name of a species that had been annihilated, his mother would be against his repulsion for blood and corpses.

During the night Yugyeom was introduced to the entire village, who didn’t know about his existence was now frightened by the fact that two wolves had stepped on the sacred land of the fallen in the shadows and announced war against anyone who favored him. Those who were not surprised and wanted the wolves to return applauded standing and shouted the name of the ancient God with passion.

It was a suffocating dinner and the first thing Yugyeom did when everyone left, and Lyra pulled Jinyoung into a conversation, he took off his tie — Bada and Boo were playing with other children and nieces in front of the palace. Lim was at a distant table, watching their youngest sisters and nieces as she put Sarang to sleep.

“Where are you going?” she wasn’t comfortable with her 'brother', but she knew that had loved him since day one and now that Narae had disappeared with her daughter and husband, she wanted to try to ease what had happened during his eighteenth birthday. “Didn't mom tell you that it was dangerous to go out at night?”

“The night is not dangerous, not when we have a killer walking freely in our home, _unnie_.” he said the last word as if it were a reminder of who he had been before that moment. The woman looked away. “Will you ever be able to look at me as you used to? When I was still a woman like you?”

“It's too early.” they heard Woori. The woman threw the cigarette on the floor and stepped on it while looking for Ah-ri among the other children. She was also not happy with the new reality of the Kim family, but unlike Narae, Woori wanted to give Jinyoung a chance after hearing him talk about the ancient people. “We were all scared about your existence and your wolf, Yugyeom. You can't blame us”.

“But you can blame me for being born, right?” he replied as a provocation, laughing. Lim sighed. “Narae and Dahye ran away from home because of me, because they hate me and my nieces will probably grow up wishing for my death, unnie-”

“ _Noona_.” Woori interrupted her brother in a harsh tone, her brown eyes are impatient. “You talk so much about wanting to be accepted, about Narae and Dahye having fled to the mountains, but don't take a moment to see who stayed here and are trying to help you get over it”.

Yugyeom clenched his fists.

“Unnie, don't be hard on him.” Minji left the house with Byeol beside her. They had probably heard everything. “He's trying to adapt as much as we do, after everything that happened, don't you think it's unfair to act that way? Yugyeom had no choice”.

“Who did?” Woori asked, turning to her sister. Minji crossed her arms, Byeol shouted at Taeyang to finish the night. “Our lives have turned upside down, but we chose to stay by your side even though Narae is the next matriarch and has other ideas for the family”.

“But unnie-”

“Noona!” Woori tapped her foot again. She kept looking irritably at her brother. Yugyeom felt his stomachache. “Do you want us to look at you as before?” she laughed. “This is impossible because you are not our sister, the little girl that I braided her blond sunny hair…” the woman let her shoulders relax. “Yugyeom, it doesn't matter who left or how things were before because none of that will come back, what matters is what we do now. And you have to start accepting that everything has changed and that it will take some time for us to be able to live normally again”.

Yugyeom knew that. He knew that ‘Gyeom’ in essence had died, that that girl who was always ripping up her dresses and annoying her older sisters because she was dirty all the time had disappeared the moment the huge gray wolf tore her body in the air.

“I don't agree” Woori said. “But Minji is right when she says that you are our brother regardless of how things were done. But you have to remember that too, that you’re our _brother_ and not sister anymore”.

“We’re trying. The council is dead, Yugyeom. The wolf inside that man tore their bodies and scattered them in our village so that we could see how dangerous he was…” Byeol stroked her daughter's hair. She sighed. “Besides, you're a man. We are too different, and you insisted on acting as if nothing had changed”.

And that was why Woori made a point of correcting him because Yugyeom was not a girl. He had never been. He was a boy born under the moon and bathed in the river of life, his lineage belonged to the wolves and nothing would be the same as before — he had to start seeing the changes if he wanted the sisters to demonstrate again what they felt beyond the fear that was always visible in your eyes.

“I lived eighteen years of lies” he whispered with a sarcastic smile, look at them. “Because you were killing my bloodline and, despite being stupid, I'm still trying to get attached to that girl I pretended to be because at least she was loved. You weren’t afraid. You just don’t want me”.

Before Woori or anyone else could respond, Yugyeom croaked loudly enough to scare his nieces and the wolf inside him tearing at his clothes and fur before running out into the dark woods — he wanted things to be different.


End file.
